He won’t be the first goaltender to be accused of having eyes in the back of his head, but Detroit Red Wing prospect Petr Mrazek certainly has them there in style with this fantastic backplate, painted for the Czech junior star by Andrew Manning of Air Trix Studios. We loved this shot the first time we saw it and artist Valerie Wutti of blitzenphotography.com was kind enough to share it with InGoal readers today.

Mrazek, who tended goal for the Ottawa 67s this past season was one of the sensations of the 2011 World Junior Championship representing the Czech Republic with fist-pumping enthusiasm that earned him the spectators’, if not this opponents’, cheers on numerous occasions. It turns out as we were putting this together Justin Goldman of the Goalie Guild released a Mrazek report to his subscribers today – you can read the Mrazek report and see him trending upwards in Goldman’s NHL depth chart rankings which were released today.

Petr Mrazek has eyes in the back of his head. Andrew Manning, Air Trix Studios. Photo thanks to Valerie Wutti blitzenphotography.com

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Pick your favourite, vote, and tell us about it in the commments for a chance to win

(contest now closed – thanks to all who joined in – congratulations to “cjthegoalie” who is our winner.)

Click for larger view.
Photos thanks to Ken DeNardo (Quick) and Scott Slingsby (Lundqvist).

The National Hockey League named three finalists for its Vezina Trophy on Wednesday but the reality is this year’s top goaltender award is a two-horse race.

With all due respect to Nashville’s workhorse Pekka Rinne as a finalist – and to those who argue Phoenix stopper Mike Smith should have been – this is an opposite-coasts battle between New York Rangers’ superstar Henrik Lundqvist and his polar-opposite personality with the Los Angeles Kings, the aptly named Jonathan Quick.

Their statistics, as outlined in the chart above, are nearly identical.

Quick played more, Lundqvist had a slightly better win percentage as a result, and both should also be Hart Trophy candidates given how incredibly valuable they are to their teams (and you could make similar arguments for Rinne and Smith as well).

If there is one number that separates Quick and Lunqvist slightly, it’s goal support.

Let us know in the comments below who you think should win – Quick, Lundqvist, Rinne, or even go off the board and choose someone else (contest now closed – thanks to all who joined in).
One random commentor will be chosen a receive two Sham Sweatbands (reviewed in our most recent Digital Magazine)

Neither goaltender got much of it. The Kings were the second lowest-scoring team to make the playoffs, and one of just two teams in the entire NHL to score fewer than 200 goals this season (194). The Rangers finished 11^th in NHL scoring with 226 goals, but Lundqvist’s backup, veteran Martin Biron, got 56 of those in his 21 appearances. When you factor in the scoring for backups, Lundqvist got 170 goals in 62 games. Quick received 162 goals of support in his 69 games, which is about 0.4 goals a game less than Lundqvist.

The Kings only got 46 goals in Quick’s 34 losses, including 13 in overtime and shootouts – and seven came in the final two games of the season, somewhat meaningless letdown losses to San Jose after clinching a playoff spot. Lundqvist didn’t fare much better, with just 30 Ranger goals in his 23 losses this season. No wonder Quick pitched an NHL-best 10 shutouts and Lundqvist wasn’t far behind with eight – they often needed to be perfect just to win.

Why is run support important? During Miikka Kiprusoff’s 2006 Vezina-winning season  (ironically, like Quick, behind a Darryl Sutter coached team), InGoal asked goalies all over the NHL whether they’d rather play behind a stingy team – and both these guys benefit from airtight defensive structure in front of them – that can’t score, or one that can put the puck in the net at the other end but gives up lots of chances, every one chose the latter.

Simply put, it’s a lot harder mentally to have no margin for error, to go out there every night knowing that one or two goals may be one or two many to win the game. Lundqvist and Quick both faced that mental hurdle this season, though the latter a little more.

Backup goalies can also be a good measure of value, so it’s worth noting that Quick posted 35 of his team’s 40 wins, while Lundqvist had a career-high 39, but Biron also posted 12.

Add it all up, and InGoal is leaning towards Quick as the (very slightly) more deserving Vezina Trophy winner for 2011-12, though it’s hard to argue with Lundqvist, who will almost certainly win, largely because the NHL General Managers who decide it tend to vote with career history in mind and Lundqvist has been a finalist three times.

Let us know who you think should win this year’s Vezina Trophy

There are two ways we’d like to hear from you about the Vezina Trophy. Please vote in the poll – we’ve added obvious candidate Mike Smith even though he can’t win the actual award – and then let us know what your thoughts are. Just add something in the comments below and we’ll select one random winner on Tuesday May 1 and send them a couple of Sham Sweatbands (reviewed in our most recent Digital Magazine)  - contest now closed – thanks to all who joined in.

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InGoal looks at NHL goaltender height, weight and BMI this season

A few days ago we presented 2011-2012 NHL goalie stats, summarized by country for your interest. We didn’t draw any conclusions and fully acknowledged the difficulty of doing so with small sample sizes in most cases and results skewed by a number of keepers who only had a few appearances this season. Still, it provided food for thought and debate.

Today we are going in a slightly different direction, asking the question: what, and in fact who, is the average NHL goaltender? Yes, this one is fraught with even more difficulty if we are relying on published heights and weights, which are far from reliable, but again let’s not have the scientific method get in the way of a little fun.

Who is tall and who is small?

Is Shawn Hunwick really 5-foot-7 and 166-pounds? I don’t know but we do know for certain that he was the smallest goaltender to make an appearance in the league this season – and what a great story it was even though he was on the ice for about as long as he is tall. If you want to look at guys who made a more significant number of starts, look at Jhonas Enroth of Buffalo at 5-foot-10 and 166-pounds as (ahem) standing up for the little guys in goal.

We also know that Ben Bishop of the Ottawa Senators towers over his peers and 6-foot-7 and a listed 215-pounds as the tallest goalie in the league, while Phoenix goaltender Jason LaBarbera is built more like a power forward at 6-foot 2 and 235-pounds.

But who is average? While it is well known that goalies’ heights have been going up over the past decade, listen in on any broadcast and you’d think your only shot at NHL fame is to be Pekka Rinne-like in size at 6-foot-5, but in fact the average NHL goalie today, whether you look at every guy who stepped on the ice or those who played in 20, 40 or even 60 or more games comes in at shorter than 6-foot-2.  And there are fully 42 goalies shorter than that who made an appearance – nearly half the 89 who played at some point this season in the league.

At 235-pounds Phoenix goaltender Jason LaBarbera is built more like a power forward.

Leaner may not be better

There is also a common perception that leaner is better. Think Tuuka Rask. We calculated each goaltender’s BMI (body mass index) and found to no surprise the extremely lean Rask (6-foot-3 and 169 pounds) has the lowest BMI (albeit a very healthy 21.1) being joined on the top-10 lean list by guys like Ryan Miller, Marc-Andre Fleury and Craig Anderson (with an honourable mention in 14^th place to the aforementioned Enroth – he’s not just short, he’s skinny!) but note that 7 of 10 are not starters.  Go to the other end of the ratio – those that are relatively more heavy than they are tall  (and it’s all relative folks, these guys are all elite athletes) – and we see names like Howard, Brodeur, Quick, Thomas in the top 10 with five of the ten having played more than half their team’s games and one (Neuvirth) very close at 38, so it may be that strength has something to do with success in this game.

There is no evidence here that you want to be skinny for NHL success.  In fact, according to the WHO (World Health Organization) 56 of this year’s NHL goalies are by definition “overweight” with a BMI between 25 and 30– but take that with a large grain of salt folks, because interpretations of measurements like the BMI are based on average people—not elite athletes.

And the winner is….

Click on an image to see Mr. Average Goalie, 6-foot-2 197-pounds playing in Anaheim last season.

Now back to the average…cue the drum roll please. Mr. Average 2011-2012 with a height of 6-foot 2 and a weight of 197-pounds, equal to the NHL average in both height and weight, was…Curtis McElhinney who made two appearances for Phoenix this season.

At only two appearances McElhinney isn’t exactly average so you might want to consider guys who played a bit more. Of the goalies who played in more than 20 games the closest to average size would be Ray Emery (6-foot-2 and 196-pounds). More than 40 games? That would be Corey Crawford (6-foot-2 ad 208-pounds).

As interesting as it is to look at the extremes like Hunwick and Bishop, Rask and LaBarbera, looking at the averages also brings a little insight. Most of these guys are tall, but nothing close to NBA-tall. And they are fit, elite athletes but of very normal weights, not marathon runner lean.

Now cue the comedians – we have scientific proof that the Hawks’ had very average goaltending this season.

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One reader added a comment to yesterday's guest post saying "add Holtby to the list" of NHL starters. Braden Holtby is just one of the 42 Canadians who have played goal in the NHL this season. Scott Slingsby Photo.

Yesterday’s guest post by Jeff Hall got a few people fired up saying it was too pro-American or simply opinion backed by no statistical evidence. We were hoping it would create some conversation – and loved the comment by Paul who wrote, “Who cares? They are all great goalies and we love goalies, right?”

Well, yes! This is a goaltending publication and great goaltending knows no national boundaries. Still, looking at success by country – or as JT noted, by developmental league – is an entertaining exercise and may yield some insight into who is doing the best job of developing goalies. Of course as soon as you ask who is “best” or what success is in developing goalies (NHL goalies? International? Minor Hockey?) that opens up another huge area for debate.

You can look at Mr. Hall’s article and decide based on his “top 6″ approach that the Finnish system is the best – but Canada placed five times as many goalies in the NHL this season – what does that say? A key component of development is getting more athletes in the system, yet the Finnish coaches are supremely successful in developing the smaller number of goaltenders that they have.

As a follow-up we  present here some basic statistical summaries from NHL goalies this season, grouped by country. Draw what conclusions you will. Yes, we know a sample size of one for two countries (Germany, Switzerland) is meaningless, and including goalies who played only a few minutes is open to interpretation.

Have a look and let us know what it means to you and what else you might like to see from the data in the comments section below.

Country	Count	GAA	SV%	SO	W	L
CAN	42	2.615	0.911	60	483	390
USA	17	2.490	0.915	36	238	154
SWE	9	2.413	0.918	19	93	73
FIN	8	2.376	0.920	26	175	111
RUS	6	2.608	0.910	14	105	88
CZE	3	2.770	0.909	11	67	58
SVK	2	2.125	0.922	6	31	19
DEU	1	2.302	0.915	0	9	7
CHE	1	2.568	0.910	4	29	30

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InGoal has a quick look from warm-up just a few minutes ago, courtesy of Scott Slingsby. The gargoyle theme is nothing new for Turco, who spent the second half of this season in Austria after failing to find an NHL job, and isn’t eligible to play for Boston in the playoffs because he signed after the trade deadline.

The look, which now compliments his squint-worthy bright yellow gear, has altered slightly over the years. But like the Gary Warwick model he continues to wear, Turco has always said Gargoyles would remain a constant on his masks.

“It’s the gatekeeper, the net protector,” Turco, who has also included the names of his daughters, Haley and Kathy, scrolled subtely into the wall the gargoyle sits on, once told InGoal. “So metaphorically it makes sense and people seem to like it so it’s the only thing I’ve ever had on my mask and it’s the one I’ll keep until I hang ‘em up.”

That could be as soon as next season. Of course, some thought he was done already. For now just enjoy Turco’s new look (and after you are done looking, check out last season’s Ask a Pro with Turco, who talks about working with Reebok’s Michel Lefevre to design the “Turco break” with two breaks on the outer roll, and the feature on how he changed puck handling while experimenting in college):

Scott Slingsby Images, All Rights Reserved

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Curtis Sanford takes a breather during practice. The hard-working Columbus goalie worked nearly 30 minutes past the end of practice with goalie coach Ian Clark. David Hutchison photo.

At 5-foot-11 Curtis Sanford won’t be mistaken for a prototypical large-bodied NHL goaltender, like teammate Stave Mason.  The affable Columbus puckstopper has worked hard to battle back to the NHL after some observers wondered if his career had levelled off and topped out as an established, solid veteran presence capable of anchoring an AHL franchise. As InGoal saw in two recent practices, despite playing on a team whose playoff hopes had long-since disappeared and fighting ongoing injuries, Sanford continues to battle, repeating drill after drill with goalie coach Ian Clark long after teammates had left the ice. He’s not giving up his place in the NHL without a fight.

Long after the team bus had left for the hotel, Sanford stuck around the locker room to share his experience and insight with InGoal readers.

~InGoal reader Joel from Hamilton asks: Can you talk about the journey back to the NHL – what has it meant to you?

Curtis Sanford: ”Obviously in the back of your mind you want it to happen and I’m kind of a guy that looks at things as a glass half-full rather than half-empty and it was just all about timing and opportunity and it just so happens I received both of them this year. Things have come together on a personal level but obviously from a team standpoint we want the year to go better and I wish I had a few more wins under my belt but its been great getting another chance and I’m just trying to enjoy every moment of it.”

~InGoal: We’re seeing more smaller guys 5’10” or 5’11” making it recently and you’re one of those guys. What do you have to do differently in your game, or what’s different between you and Steve [Mason]?

Curtis Sanford: ”Well obviously the depths that we play at are significantly different.  I kind of take a look at how Tim Thomas and Jonathan Quick play. I’ve really tried to find a similarity with those guys and some stuff they do with their game and try to bring into my own. It’s kind of stealing from them but they’ve managed a way to be aggressive and use the more depth to their advantage.”

At 5'11", Sanford has to establish a more aggressive initial depth than teammate Steve Mason

~InGoal: Where do you establish your initial depth off the rush?

Curtis Sanford: ”Probably before I was getting out there pretty far, probably three feet above now I’ve pretty much chopped it back now to just over a foot and remain patient and keep that depth as long as I can and then obviously when it gets in-zone it’s more around a little bit above the top of the crease line.”

~InGoal: Is it fair to say that a smaller guy needs more lateral mobility because of that depth?

Curtis Sanford: ”Oh definitely, yea. We don’t have long limbs or anything like that like Pekka Rinne and those guys so working on lateral movements, rotations within your butterfly you have to be able to trigger them really quick and really have an efficient push across so that you’re getting in that position quickly.”

~InGoal: If I had a 14 year old goalie standing here who maybe would only be 5’10” some day what should he be working on? Any tips you might give him?

Curtis Sanford: ”A lot of the things that I’ve been working on are obviously establishing that depth, keep on working on depth off the rush, depth from your end zone play and obviously working on your post play, being able to trigger of posts and into your depth really quickly because the plays develop in your zone so much more quickly and you want to be able to get to your depth before your screen gets there before you, so you have that little extra room to work with.”

Curtis Sanford's Unique Stick Modification saves his fingers while providing a better seal in the paddle down position

~InGoal: Can you tell us a bit about your stick? That’s pretty unique.

Curtis Sanford: ”Yea it’s something that an old Finnish goalie Pasi Nurminen – I got that from him – I didn’t know him but I saw one of his sticks one time and basically what it allows you to do is it allows you to have that flush coverage on the ice in paddle-down without pinching your fingers off. I got sick and tired of having black and blue fingernails. It’s kind of a wimpy thing but it works for me.”

~InGoal: Do you do it yourself, or do the trainers do it?

Curtis Sanford: ”No, actually Reebok does it for me and before they had it Warrior did it for me. They’re pretty good at finding ways to please everybody.”

~InGoal  reader Jessica S. asks: What do you think of your new Reebok P4s?

Curtis Sanford: ”Oh these are awesome. Roberto got me to switch when I was playing here in Vancouver and ever since I put them on and I don’t see myself wearing anything else. I’ve been really pleased with them and working with the guys at Reebok and they’re awesome. I work with Christian Marois there and they do anything they can to keep you happy and their stuff is second to none as far as I’m concerned.”

~InGoal: What can you tell us about yours?

Curtis Sanford: ”No external breaks, double internal. A lot of guys don’t have these two buckles (above the knee) and then they just use these (points to elastic/velcro knee strap) to cinch in the knee. I don’t even know why I have these here because I wear them so loose but it’s just something I’ve been used to.”

~InGoal : What do you feel different this year in the P4?

Curtis Sanford: ”Well I think this here (knee stack) is a little different this is a little more, it doesn’t give as much, it almost works as a second stack in there it stays really solid. The thing I like the most about it is the new knee pads. You go down and you just feel like you have a little bit more. Other than that there’s not too much.” [Editor's Note: Reebok's Pro Rep informs us they are not actually new knee pads he's wearing but a stock catalog item the KPREVP knee pad.)

~InGoal: How many sets in a year?

Curtis Sanford: "This is my third set of these and I have one for our third jersey. When you’re on the ice as much as we are, you go through them."

~InGoal Facebook follower Christian Jay Frølich Jensen asks: Who was the greatest inspiration in your career?

Curtis Sanford: "The two guys I looked up to the most were obviously Grant Fhur – when they were going through the dynasty years in Edmonton and they were always winning you know it’s always fun to look up to a guy that’s winning and flashing the leather, glove saves and whatever. And then you know when I started to appreciate the position more it ended up being Patrick Roy just being able to watch him you know the competitive level, positioning, squareness, it’s something that you don’t really recognize until you grow up a little bit more and you're trying to learn more about what certain guys are doing and he was one of those guys who I looked at and I said that’s how I want to play the game."

~InGoal Facebook follower Michael Mag asks: Sandman, I met you in the blue line shop a few weeks ago, my question is the same as I asked you then........" are you ready to let me buy the powder blue p4 set and one of your dillon masks?"......your one of my top goalies, good luck and keep up the god work brother

Curtis Sanford: [laughing] “I’m going to have to say – my wife wants to put those on display in our house, so I don’t think I’ll be able to sell those or else I won’t have a happy wife at home but I’ll see what I can do about one of my masks for sure.”

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Like many of the rec-hockey players in our audience, I’ve been wearing a mask I’ve loved for years…about 14 in fact. I know the best move is probably to replace it – and I may well before too long – but this is an old friend I wasn’t ready to get rid of. But it was in bad shape. A mess on the outside and a toxic waste dump on the inside. My ‘old friend’ had been badly mistreated.

When a lengthy trip took me away from the rink in the fall I decided it was time to act. I could send it away and have it ready when I returned. The mask needed help and after so many years in net and publishing so many pro mask photos here at InGoal, it was also time to put some paint on what would become my ‘new’ lid.

Unable to part with my old iTech helmet, I turned to New Image Goalie Masks. Word was Ray there could breathe new life into my mask, giving it an outside makeover that would leave it looking like new, a shiny new pro cage and brand new padding on the inside – I would get it back thinking it was brand new.

He came through. Take a look below to see what I gave him to work with. Chipped, cracked and even bearing some nasty double-sided tape from a Jose-Theodore-Style Touque-on-Mask experiment gone wrong, he had his work cut out for him.

About a week after Ray received the helmet, he was finished. Just a remarkable change. It was like new. I can say this – you need to upgrade your padding on a regular basis. The mask suddenly fits again (shrinking foam had left it loose) and with all new straps as well I gained the newer system on the backplate so it would be completely visible and reveal all of the artist’s good work.

Ray then sent this beauty on to my painter for this project - Headstrong Grafx. Who knows, maybe their paint on Brian Elliot’s helmet had something to do with his amazing season and some of that luck might transfer to me (Cue my teammates – No!). Either way, I had developed a bit of a relationship with them through stories we had done here and I felt like my helmet was in good hands. The Elliot mask is one of my favourites and I knew that Headstrong would come through for me.

My old mask after reconditioning by New Image Goalie Masks.

I didn’t want to be the kind of client that dictated too much to an artist at the risk of taking away their own style and design sense. So I told Headstrong only a few things: InGoal logo prominent on the helmet, “Hutch” on the chin, early 70s Ken Dryden on the other – he was the inspiration behind me becoming a goaltender, and a blue base colour. The rest was all theirs. You’ll notice stars on one side and maple leaves on the other – that was Headstrong’s concept to represent the two largest groups of InGoal readers in the USA and Canada.

The process was painless and I really appreciated getting a full colour image of what the mask would look like at several stages to show me exactly what I would be receiving and being able to tweak things a little bit along the way.

When I returned from work the day it came, nicely boxed and protected with enough packing peanuts to keep my kids happy for a month, it was the thrill of a lifetime. I’d been dreaming of putting on a painted mask since the age of five, back when Greg Harrison was the man behind all the great designs. The detail work is fantastic and Headstrong’s attention to detail is exacting. They obviously took that “new” mask and spent the time to prep it carefully so that all I got back was a perfect paint job. I’m thrilled with what I got – intricate detail you can only appreciate when you hold the mask in your hands and a healthy dose of large, bold elements that can be seen from the stands and on TV….wait. There’s nobody watching. Oh well. I only got it for myself anyway.

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Have you ever wanted to know what it feels like to stare down professional shooters – to get a first person view just like a pro goalie? Mike Murphy of the Charlotte Checkers stands in front of professional shots every day, but even he was taking a chance when he strapped a GoPro HD video camera to his helmet for a practice. You see, for all the professionalism out there, those players are still kids at heart and when facing a goalie with a camera on his head – well, it wouldn’t take long before someone decided to use it for target practice.

Check out the video below which gives you some great perspective on professional shots – and an ongoing commentary from Murphy that’s every bit as entertaining. Murphy, by the way, has managed to get into two games for the Carolina Hurricanes this year, and despite having a 1.000 save percentage sports a 0-1 record…the first goalie in NHL history to be credited with a loss before giving up his first goal. Talk about tough luck!

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In today’s matinee vs. Philadelphia, won 3-2 by the Bruins, goalie gear aficionados will have noticed a significant change to Boston goaltender Tim Thomas’ equipment. Wearing the non-branded mystery pads and glove that InGoal first reported on in the pre-season, today Thomas added a change to the blocker he has always remained faithful to and told InGoal just fit his game better than the one that matched the Vaughn gear he wore at the time - completing the set with a new unbranded one today.

Thomas has tried versions of this gear throughout the season, always returning to his old equipment, suggesting he has struggled to get the new brand dialed-in – but today he appeared in a complete set for the first time.

Thanks as always to InGoal’s Scott Slingsby for the timely photography.

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This interview was originally published with the InGoal News our subscribers – if you want all our great content first – subscribe today (it’s free!).

Chris Mason wearing his custom Brian's SubZero Gear with Jets Logo

Given the popularity of his Jets-logo pads and gloves, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that our Ask a Pro with Winnipeg goaltender Chris Mason quickly turned into a review of his unique Brian’s Sub-Zero equipment.

As the only goalie wearing the new line in the NHL, Mason is the perfect person to ask how the Sub-Zeros have held up, especially the revolutionary Velcro-based strapping system that helps the pads achieve their incredible light weight. That made this sit-down with Mason an ideal follow up to InGoal’s initial review of the Sub-Zero in the inaugural digital magazine.

The answers bode well for those who already bought into on the Sub-Zero hype, including the fact he delayed breaking out the “Jets” pads only because his first set was holding up so well before finally giving in to the pressure to debut the popular new-look pads (That delay also gave Mason time to get a great new mask from EyeCandyAir that perfectly matches the pads). But they aren’t the only great responses.

In addition to questions about the team-logoed gear, the personable and popular veteran talked about his championship stint in Norway during the NHL lockout, and how it actually helped him prepare for the evolving NHL when he returned, how he prepares on a game day, and the key to reading pucks off sticks.

As you read Mason’s thoughts, be sure to check out the initial InGoal review of the Sub-Zero line. And if you aren’t reading this through our newsletter, it means you aren’t getting it first, so be sure to sign up for the free weekly email, which includes the chance to post questions to other NHL goalies. And be sure to “like” InGoal on Facebook for more chances to ask questions of the top pros – like the questions Carey Price answered for us last week, an interview that will be published in next week’s newsletter and in the April magazine.

In the meantime, enjoy Chris Mason, one of the NHL’s best guys:

InGoal Facebook fan Scott Christensen asks, “how was playing Norway during the lockout? Differences, overall experience and how’d he decide to go there?”

Chris Mason: “I loved it. The year previous was my first year in the NHL and I really wanted to play somewhere, and just get the playing time, and I had the opportunity to go there. And obviously with the rink being different, the style of play is a little more about smaller players, good skaters, and a lot of good skill on the bigger ice surface. So it was definitely an adjustment with the angles and the east-west was longer. And then coming back to the NHL with the new rules and a more open game, I definitely think the need to be patient over there helped coming back. You can’t get locked in and stuck on your knees a lot because they hold on and they look for that extra pass, and the way the NHL is now, guys aren’t coming down the wing and just blasting it at the net and driving any more. They’ve got their heads up and they are looking for trailers and plays across the ice, so it’s been a huge change the last five-six years.”

InGoal reader Derek Labossiere asks, “What are you pre-game warm-ups/ routines? They both seem so focused early in games.”

Chris Mason: “If I am playing I will go back and eat always at the same time and try to get my nap in the afternoon around about 2 o’clock for 45 minutes to an hour max. I like to get to the rink about three hours before a game, watch a little tape, and sometimes I’ll watch some shootout tape just in case that comes into play. Power play is definitely another focus, but we do a lot of that in the morning as a team, look at a lot of end-zone and set up and things like that. That’s definitely valuable information for a goaltender.”

InGoal follow up: do you use any hand-eye co-ordination exercises pre-game?

Chris Mason: “At home we play table tennis. We have a ping-pong table in the hallway at the MTS Center and I really think that does help with hand-eye so we do that before every game. But I’ll also ride the bike for 10 minutes to get the blood flowing and stretch after that, and that’s pretty well it. And I’ll just go sit in stall about 10 minutes before I take a shower and do some visualization. I just kind of simulate plays in my head, follow them around the zone, and just try to see the way pucks are coming off guy’s sticks and things like that.”

InGoal: Your former goalie coach in Nasville, Mitch Korn, has talked to InGoal in the past about that ability to read pucks off a shooter’s stick as something you’ve always done well. Is it something you can work to improve or innate?

Chris Mason: “I definitely think the anticipation and ability to read the body language and just the way the hands are positioned and things like that – when you are on as a goalie I think that’s one of the keys, reading pucks off sticks – because goalies make saves sometimes that there’s no way they should be able to and that’s partially anticipation and you know where he’s shooting because of the way his stick looks. But of course the good players are good at hiding that and changing it at the last second. It’s definitely a skill you can work on.”

InGoal reader Logan Angus asks: “Obviously the inspiration for his custom graphic sub zeroes came from the Jets logo, but did he come up with the idea to put it on his pads? or did Brians or somebody else approach him with the idea?” 

Chris Mason: “I called them just to tell him kind of what I was thinking and asked if we could do something with the Jets logo because I just thought it’s really symmetrical and I thought it would look great on a pair of pads, and they sent me an email with six different templates of different ideas and that was the one I chose.”

Facebook fan Nick Toncheff asks: “The Sub-Zeros, do you feel the strapping system on the pads has helped your game?” (InGoal also asked how the straps have held up)

Chris Mason: “I haven’t had to change the Velcro straps on either set. I mean it’s easy if you wanted to change the strapping, you just pull them out, but I’ve had no reason to change them at all, they’ve been great. The Velcro stood up perfectly. I used that first set of pads for quite a long time, probably a lot longer than most guys would use one set of pads, and it was perfectly fine when I changed. I just wanted to use the new stuff. I really wanted to get into them, but my other ones were still sturdy, they felt great, and I honestly probably could have kept wearing them all year if I wanted to. I don’t usually go through a lot of pads like some guys, but I can easily do two, three pairs a year, I’ve done that in the past, but this year I definitely could have gone longer in the first set of pads, but I really wanted to get into these (Jets logo) pads and I was getting a lot of pressure from the guys.”

InGoal reader Louis-Quentin Dubé asks: “Does the Sub-Zero taper at the boot limit the seal to the ice or is the seal unaffected due to pad rotation? And how does the mesh in the leg channel hold up on the Sub-Zero?”

Chris Mason: “The first set I had I think was a 78-degree taper and wanted the toe a little more square and the next set they squared it off (to an 84-degree taper) and I just preferred that a lot better. It kind of seals the ice a little more and when you are sticking your leg out making that toe save it just feels like you have more pad on the ice. But I still felt like I had a good seal through the rest of the pad in both angles, and the knee stacks are pretty good too, and I feel like they cut down the five hole.”

InGoal: And the mesh inside leg channel?

Chris Mason: “It’s held up great and it’s so comfortable. This whole pad, is a little lighter weight, and it’s held up so well. When I first put these pads on in the summer, I knew that I was going to make the switch because they felt so good. Usually when I put on a pair of pads it takes me a while to get comfortable but I put these on and right away they felt like they cradled my leg and felt so good.”

InGoal Facebook fan ChristianAllan Lim ?asks: “Do you guys have any mods on your C/A? If so, what are they? And what model c/a do you guys use? Thx!!”

Chris Mason: “Brian’s just sent me their stock new Sub-Zero chest protector and I liked it so I didn’t have to change anything.”

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